Category Archive: Campaign finance

Nineteen candidates are contesting tomorrow’s primary for Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ old seat as U.S. Senator for Alabama, but few have made an impression on Alabamians. Current Sen. Luther Strange (R-Ala.) is miles ahead in terms of money raised. Strange, formerly the state’s Attorney General, was appointed to the Senate in February by Alabama Gov.…

It’s no surprise money can play an important role in winning elections, but where that money comes from is often difficult to ascertain. One example of this “dark money” influence can be found in the results of the Colorado state House of Representatives election last year. All 65 district spots were up for grabs and…

On September 30, 2016, Barry and Trudy Silverstein each gave $416,100 to the Hillary Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee. The Victory Fund was a federal committee — so contribution limits supposedly apply — raising money for the Democratic National Committee, the Clinton campaign, and 38 state Democratic party committees. Each donor could write one check that…

On Tuesday, voters in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District will vote in the most expensive House election ever. A staggering $56.7 million (at least) has been spent on the special election, including $51.9 million on the two candidates left standing after the primary. The race between Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican Karen Handel is the most expensive House race…

Uber service for pallets of lumber, crates of fruit and boxes of bolts? Last week, the company’s embattled CEO Travis Kalanick tweeted an image of an “Uber Freight” truck, a product of the company’s still-gestating foray into the trucking industry. Amazon, reportedly, is also working on an app that will connect truckers and shippers —…

The Recording Academy’s high-wattage GRAMMYs on the Hill event in early April honored Sens. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) for their commitment to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) — an agency that President Donald Trump‘s administration has proposed cutting. Still, stars like country singers Keith Urban and Wynonna Judd, both of…

This week, the Justice Department moved to delay enforcement of rules the FDA finalized a year ago dealing with tobacco products like e-cigarettes, cigars and hookah tobacco. It’s been a busy time for big tobacco, as the victory came on the heels of a defeat for vaping (e-cigarette) companies: Sunday night’s omnibus budget bill reportedly did…

“I think that American people should know that the members of Congress are underpaid,” said Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) in April 2014, having recently announced his retirement from the House. To be fair, he was discussing the results of an annual House vote on adjusting lawmaker pay: Each year, Congress can give itself a raise to keep…

Election Day, 2016? Now an ancient memory from a distant time. But the intervening months have allowed us to do some math and determine, finally, the price tag for the whole shebang. We can now report that the total cost of the election was nearly $6.5 billion, a 3 percent increase from 2012’s figure of just under…

Politicians rarely like to talk about the money that fuels their campaigns, and for good reason. The big players in campaign finance — billionaire megadonors, professional fundraisers, lobbyists — rarely get a warm reception from the public. Perhaps the only exception is the much-loved small donor. In 2016, campaigns and PACs raised 32.2 percent of their funds…

Except for the Revolving Door section, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License by OpenSecrets.org. To request permission for commercial use, please contact us.